


Stars Around Her

by ComparedCarp64



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, First Kiss, Idiots in Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23181430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComparedCarp64/pseuds/ComparedCarp64
Summary: Din, Cara, and the Kid go swimming.UPDATE: This story was wrongly tagged as Din/Cara/Omera. It has been fixed to Din/Cara
Relationships: Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 71





	Stars Around Her

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from "Stars Around her" by The Mountain Goats

“I saw the darkness coming down,  
It posed no threat to me  
I let the dakrness ease its way around  
It was every good thing  
I'd expected it would be  
I saw you coming,  
Through the twisting vines outside  
I saw the new moon collide  
With the stars  
Clustered around her.”

Nevarro had been, for lack of a better word, a clusterfuck. Even after the dust had settled and Dune and Karga had run the last of the imps off the planet, most of the city still lay a ruined mess. Most of the hunters had scattered weeks ago when the imps first came to town, and it would be weeks before they started trickling back in search of more credits.  
That’s what Dune told Din when she’d showed up on Tatooine less than a month after they had parted ways on Nevarro. Din had spent a good 30 seconds staring agape (thankful for his helmet) as he watched her lazily sipping whiskey in the dingy corner of the cantina on Tatooine. Had She been able to see his face, Din would never have lived that moment down.  
Not that Din minded her presence, quite the contrary. But Dune hadn’t been able to look Din in the eyes since he had been ready to give his life for her and the kid back on Nevarro. She’d always had an uncanny ability to know exactly where to look on his visor to meet his eyes directly. It had startled him to the core the first time she’d done it on Sorgan, as they lay pointing their blasters at one another. For a moment he had panicked, wondering if she possessed some sort of unique capability of seeing past the beskar helmet he wore.  
He grew used to it eventually. He’d actually discovered he liked being looked dead in the eyes for the first time in a while. It was like Dune saw straight through the Mandalorian armor. Din had yet to examine why this made him feel so good, why he enjoyed being vulnerable to someone in a way he hasn’t in years.  
Now, he shook the thought from his mind as he and Dune trampled through the thick forests of Sorgan. When they had run into each other on Tatooine Dune had convinced him to come with her to Sorgan for the time being. Din had agreed under the excuse of letting the kid have some downtime, but secretly he was glad to be able to return to the quiet planet now that the imps had been taken care of for the time being. Din had been right in his earlier predictions that their presence in the village would be an excellent deterrent for local thieves and raiders. There had hardly been a single weird blue shrimp stolen since they had returned, and for that Omera and the rest of the village were incredibly grateful. Still, neither he nor Dune could quell their need for something to do besides sipping spotchka and patrolling the woods surrounding the village for weeks on end.  
Which is how they found themselves trekking through the forest as the afternoon heat beat down on their backs, somehow managing to break through the thick canopy of trees above them. Din would be lying if he said that sweat wasn’t pooling beneath his beskar armor. Dune didn’t look much better. Her usually braided hair had come undone several kilometers back, and a thin line of sweat was working its way down her left temple. They had decided to take this scouting mission partially to help the village assess the water sources in the surrounding area, and partially just to have something to do.  
Din was silently relieved when he began to hear the rush of the waterfall they had planned on checking out today up ahead of them. Dune’s face was visibly relieved as they came upon the source of the water. A small waterfall stood before them, jutting out of the side of a rock face, and draining into a small body of water. The Kid gurgled in excitement as he saw the waterfall. They had tried leaving him back at the village twice. Both times they had gotten a good kilometer or so before realizing that he was happily waddling behind them. After the second time, they had given up and resigned themselves to toting the kid around on their outing.  
Din placed the kid gently by the edge of a particularly shallow part of the water and settled in to watch the kid play in the shallow pool. He stared at the kid for several moments as he would touch the water and gurgle in excitement, captivated by the kid’s eager fascination. He was raised out of his stupor when Dune plopped to the ground beside them.  
“So I guess this is it.” She said, panting slightly from the heat and the exertion of their hike.  
“This is it” Din replied, not daring to take his eyes off the Kid to meet Dune’s.  
“Well?”  
“Well what?” he replied, looking up at her. Dune smirked at him.  
“Aren’t you coming in?” She said, as she began removing her boots.  
Din pondered this for a moment. “Don’t want to get the beskar wet” he offered.  
Dune scowled at that but didn’t say anything as she stood up and began removing her armor. When she got down to her final layer of clothing and began stripping that off as well Din found himself unable to look away, mouth suddenly dry.  
Dune was by no means a delicate woman, but her strength and skill in battle subtracted nothing from her undeniable beauty. Almost everyone they had encountered while traveling together had remarked on it in some form. Now, watching Dune peel back the layers of underclothes from her skin, watching the fabric catch from her sweat, Din couldn’t deny that he found her incredibly attractive. In nothing but her black undergarments, Din could see the thick muscles of her thighs and the defined muscles on her back and stomach.  
Din felt something dark and longing build up in him as he tried to keep from staring at her nearly bare form. Sometimes pangs of jealousy would hit him when he saw someone like this. Someone with the ability to bare themselves to another person. Someone who didn’t have to hide their face from the world. Din tried to push the jealousy away from him as he pretended not to watch Dune as she swam.  
He regretted not paying attention to the kid almost immediately as one quick glance confirmed that the little womp rat was nowhere in sight. Din bit back a noise of panic as he stood up abruptly, Startling Dune from where she was using the water to rinse the dirt and sweat from her body. Almost immediately she noticed the kid’s absence.  
“Where’d he go?” Din quipped, unable to keep the panic from rising in his voice.  
Dune was upright in seconds. “Where the kriff has he gotten to know?” she joked, but Din could hear the concern in her voice. It made something stir deep in his gut to see how much Dune cared for his foundling. Something he wasn’t entirely ready to confront yet.  
Their brief panic was interrupted by the distinctive happy cooing of the kid coming from behind the waterfall. Din had shed his beskar armor in seconds and waded towards the waterfall to retrieve the little troublemaker. Dune followed suit, and they found themselves encased in the darkness of an enclave jarring out of the cliff behind the waterfall.  
“That little fucker’s lucky he’s so cute.” Dune remarked at the outline of the kid in the darkness.  
“Is he okay?” Din inquired, as his visor auto-adjusted to the darkness.  
“Yeah he’s totally fine” Dune replied. The loudness of her voice in his ears made him suddenly hyper-aware of their proximity in the tiny cave. The pair stood in silence for several seconds as the rush of the waterfall echoed off the cliff. The sudden pitch-black darkness gave Din an idea. He began slowly removing his helmet, carefully not to drop it into the water below.  
Dune gasped slightly when she heard the sound of his helmet being removed, but the darkness of the cave kept her from seeing anything but the outline of his head a few inches in front of her.  
“What are you-” she started  
“I just wanted to rinse out my hair” he interjected quickly. The truth was that he'd seen the darkness as a rare opportunity to bare himself to another for the first time in years. He felt a thrill of excitement and fear at the knowledge that the only thing keeping Dune from seeing his face was the darkness created by the cave.  
“Can i-” she placed her hand gently on his shoulder. Din felt a sharp jolt of electricity at the small touch. “Could I feel your face?” she inquired somewhat sheepishly.  
Din inclined his head as permission, but remembering the darkness they were surrounded by replied with a soft “yes”.  
Dune's hands were impossibly soft for that of a warrior. Her fingers timidly began feeling the outline of his face, tracing the jut of his nose, and running the pads of her fingers across his lips.  
“Handsome” she remarked, somewhat absentmindedly. Her hand coming to rest cupping his cheek.  
“You think so?” he breathed back, his brain going dizzy at the contact and their proximity. He took less than a second to consider his actions before he leaned in and pressed his lips chastely to Dune’s. She stiffened, and for a brief moment, Din was terrified he made a terrible misstep until she relaxed and deepened the kiss, her hand moving from his cheek to rest on his shoulder. Din could feel every nerve in his body come alive as they kissed. A deep ball of excitement and attraction building in his gut as they pressed closer together.  
The kiss ended all too shortly when Din was unceremoniously slapped in the face by one of the Kid’s meaty hands. The child cooed for attention, and the moment was over.  
Silently Din slipped his helmet on as they exited the cave. The silence that dominated the long walk back to the village made the journey seem even longer. By the time they returned to the village Din could still feel every millimeter of skin that Dune had touched like her touch had been electrified, and Dune had once again stopped looking Din in the eyes.


End file.
